Changing from one sport to another is sometimes the biggest adjustment in high school.
Take the case of junior Bayfield wrestler, Sam Westbrook, who was featured as the nose guard and center for the 2015 Bayfield football championship team.
And as soon as the celebration ended for the Wolverines, Westbrook was taking off his helmet and pads, and putting on a singlet and headgear. Going from dirt to a mat while still grappling opponents and dominating with determination.
His size is notable. At 6-foot-5 and 285 pounds, he wrestles in the heavyweight class and has so far gone 17-0 while most recently going 4-0 with four pins at the Pagosa Springs Tournament on Saturday. According to Bayfield head coach Neil Barnes, it’s not his size that’s most impressive.
“For his size, he’s probably the most athletic kid ever seen,” Barnes said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “He has the possibly to be the best (in the state). He has an attitude that he doesn’t want to lose.”
At the Pagosa Springs Tournament, Westbrook faced wrestlers from New Mexico and Utah who placed in their respective state tournaments last season, and beat them all. What separates Westbrook from other wrestlers is not just his size or athleticism, but his work ethic.
“His attitude is his best attribute,” Barnes said. “He’s so easy to coach and he listens, and he wants to get better. He brings leadership. He works hard in the room and the rest of the team sees that.”
Westbrook, 17, is one of the team captains, and when seeing him on the mat, it’s easy to see why. He’s humble and Barnes describes him as a gentle giant off the mat.
“He’ll do anything to do to help you,” Barnes said. “He’s a great student and just a good all-around kid.”
Bayfield as a team has been improving since the beginning of the season. The Wolverines opened the year by narrowly winning the Wolverine Classic on a coin flip against Pagosa Springs as both teams sat with 86 ½ points.
Bayfield began the year at half strength, but since the new year came, the Wolverines are now a full squad. Fellow wrestler junior Ryan Nava was also on the football championship run as was senior Cash Snooks. Alongside all three football players, Bayfield is fronting an impressive roster that is larger than last season.
“I think that we are a lot more positive, we have an abundance of more wrestlers from last year,” Westbrook said, son of Kirsten and Mark Westbrook. “There are a lot of good athletes, which has boosted moral. It’s helped us keep in the running for tournaments that normally we wouldn’t be in.”
Westbrook said that football has taught him to not only use his strength and physicality, but the ablility to execute and to stay focused along with learning to bond with teammates. Those football attributes compliment his wrestling quite nicely.
“You have to have mental toughness and determination,” Westbrook said about the challenges of wrestling. “It’s about setting a goal and putting all the necessary work and unnecessary work to reach the goal. It teaches us to stick to it.”
Barnes remembers when he realized how special Westbrook is. While an assistant at BHS last season, Barnes was able to get a lot of one-on-one time with Westbrook because he was on the only heavyweight on the roster.
“I was able to work on big guy stuff that heavy weights use,” Barnes said. “All of a sudden after Christmas break, he turned it on and I saw that he was athletic enough that he could wrestle with anyone.”
Barnes is a big guy himself so he knows how to coach a kid like Westbrook. The two have been able to work on multiple assets of Westbrook’s talents and size, which makes him a tough draw.
“I want him to wrestle like a big guy, but if we need him to get a take down I yell ‘little guy,’” Barnes said. “Then he’ll change his style of wrestling, which is tough to beat. A lot of heavyweights are one dimensional. I saw that after Christmas last year, and I saw the drive for him to want to be the best.”
Barnes added that he believes Westbrook can win a state title as he is currently ranked third in the state.
“If he continues to work hard, I don’t see why he won’t be on top of the podium,” Barnes said.
The wrestling community is a tightly-knit one where wrestlers from Durango, Bayfield and Ignacio all know each other quite well. Westbrook mentioned that Ignacio head coach Jordan Larsen, who hails from Bayfield, is an inspiration.
“He inspires me because he wasn’t great going into high school, but as he went through the years, he put in hard work and managed to get a state championship, and then went on to wrestle in college,” Westbrook said.
Another inspiration for Westbrook is his father because he always made Westbrook work to the best of his ability.
“That’s where I’ve learned the hard work,” Westbrook said. “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”
jmentzer@durangoherald.com
